1. Stress can be divided into eustress, which results in good consequences, and distress, which interferes with performance. Stressors vary in severity from catastrophes to daily hassles. 2. The fight or flight response is the body's initial reaction to stressors, activating the sympathetic nervous system to mobilize energy to address the stressor. This can include increased heart rate and blood pressure. 3. Prolonged stress leads to the General Adaptation Syndrome, where the body becomes exhausted trying to continually adapt to stressors, which can eventually result in organ malfunction or disease if unaddressed.

1. STRESS - Part 1
Zahiruddin Othman
17 Feb 2005

2. Fight Or Flight Phenomenon
Cannon, 1939: stress as a "fight or flight"
phenomenon ... helps us to mobilize energy to
either defeat the stressor or to get away from it
Modern stress has more social or psychological
stressors than physical stressors
An ego-related stressor cannot be reduced by using a
physical response (e.g. fight)
May also continue over a longer time than a physical stressor
An imagined stressor is impossible to fight via physical means

4. Good And Bad Stress
Hans Selye, 1956: stressors are part of normal
daily life and can be divided into the good and
the bad:
Eustress
 Results in good consequence
Distress
 Result in negative consequence, interfere with
performance

7. Stressors
Stressors vary in severity and how often
they occur in our life
Catastrophes
Major life changes
Daily hassles

8. Catastrophes
Are large-scale events that disrupt the
lives of many people and strain or
overwhelm community services.
Examples include natural disasters such as
hurricane, floods, and famine

10. Major Life Changes
Are milestone events in a person's life,
which cause substantial change in one's
daily routine.
Examples include,
graduating from college,
changing jobs,
getting married or divorced,
death of a loved one,
becoming a parent, etc.

11. Major life changes happen once or only a
few times in a person's life

13. Psychosocial Factors
Relations between people and other
people
Same events interpreted differently by
different individuals
Adaptation
Overload
Frustration
Deprivation
Trauma

14. LCU – Life Events Of A College
Student
100 – Death of a close family member
80 – Jail term
63 – Final year or first year in college
60 – Pregnancy (to you or caused by you)
53 – Severe personal illness or injury – 53
50 – Marriage
45 – Any interpersonal problems
40 – Financial difficulties
40 –Death of a close friend
40 – Arguments with your roommate

15. Interpreting The Scale
Predictor of physical and mental illness for
a-two year period after the accumulation of
the stressors
i.e. Total LCU in 12 months
Level of life change stress
Low: < 150
Moderate: 150 – 300
High: > 300:

16. Frustration
When we are prevented from achieving
our goals, we become frustrated
Discrimination
Bureaucracy
Socioeconomic factors
Responses to frustration
Anger and aggression
Nervous and hormonal response (i.e. the
stress response)

17. Overload
Demands > capacity
Can arise from a variety of sources:
Time pressures
Too much responsibility/accountability
Lack of support
Expectations which are too high

18. Occupational Overload
Sources of occupational overload
Responsibility/accountability
Lack of managerial/subordinate
support
Unreasonably high role
expectations

21. Deadlines are common source of
occupational overload

22. Academic Overload
Demands on teachers (Cooper, 1995)
Research, community service, teaching,
advising, parent-student counseling, etc.
Demands on students
Competition for entry into university (then
entry into graduate school)
Admissions tests
• Need for mental health counseling in educational
institutions

23. Deprivational Stress
• Boredom
– Could be due to monotonous tasks, unchallenging
work
– Boredom and depression are major adolescent health
problems
• Loneliness
– Not enough care and attention to children  stimulus
deprivation
– Lynch, 1977: rate of heart disease, cancer and auto
accidents higher in single, widowed and divorced
individuals. Unmarried men 45-54 years = 123%
higher death rate than married men

24. Bioecological Factors
Interpreted more or less the same by
different people
Time and body rhythm
Eating and drinking habit
Drugs
Noise pollution
Climate and altitude

25. Intervening factors filter and modify
the stressors

27. Pessimistic Explanatory Style
Inescapable shock experiment
Loss of perceived control leads to learned helplessness

28. Coping Styles
Emotional-based coping
Focus on emotions due to stress
• i.e. stress reaction
Problem-based coping
Focus on the events causing stress
• i.e. stressors

29. Characteristics of a Type A
Behavior Pattern
Hurry sickness
– A sense of time urgency; trying to accomplish too
much in too little time.
Quest for numbers
– Preoccupied with ratings, being better than others,
earning more money, etc.
Insecurity of status
– Strong need for "objective" measure of self-worth,
pursues achievement to get admiration from others.
Aggression & hostility
– Competes with or challenges others continually;
struggles to beat others, quick-tempered and angry

30. Type A personality individual is preoccupied with ratings, being
better than others, earning more money, etc.

31. Aggressive or Passive
Aggressiveness
– Demanding
– Does not consider the other person's self esteem
– Belittles the other person (e.g. they are "dumb" for not
agreeing)
– Usually results in counter-aggression
– Communication usually blocked ... everyone leaves
dissatisfied
Non-assertiveness = NOT saying what you feel
... being passive
– Might sit back and hope that others will notice their
needs
– Might use manipulation

32. Being assertive means saying what you
feel but not being aggressive

33. Stress reactions occur at various levels –
physiological, emotional, and behavioral

34. Physiological Reaction
When people experience stressors, the typical
physiological reaction is a "fight-or -flight
response."
The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is
activated, arousing the body to either escape
from or defend against the stressor.
With mild stressors, the "fight-or-flight" response
includes release of excitatory neurotransmitters
and hormones, increased heart rate and blood
pressure, more rapid and shallow respiration,
and perspiration on brow or palms.

36. Sympathetic nervous system is activated during
“fight or flight” response

37. Parasympathetic Nervous
System
• Relaxation and termination of the stress
response
– slow down HR
– expansion of most blood vessels ... increased
gastrointestinal activity
– bronchial constriction
– pupil constriction
– salivary increase

39. GAS was
proposed by
Hans Selye

40. General Adaptation Syndrome
Resistance Phase
– Channeling of arousal response to a specific organ
– Decreases in ACTH
– Arousal of a specific organ system ... eventual fatigue and malfunction
– Adaptation to stress eventually becomes a disease in itself
Exhaustion Phase
– Specific organ system involved in the resistance phase breaks down
– Increased ACTH again
– Exhaustion, malfunction or death
Alarm Phase
– Initial response to a stressor
– Increased ACTH from pituitary gland
– Stimulation of adrenal glands
– Fight or flight response
– Generalized stress arousal

43. Responses To Stress
Body
Psychosomatic illness
e.g. essential hypertension, tension headache
Mind
Mental illness
e.g. depression, anxiety etc
Behavioral
Ineffective coping styles
e.g. conduct problem, drug addiction